The Collisnport Chronicles XLIX: The changeling
by Maryland Rose
Summary: Doctor Blair from Parallel Time comes to Collinsport, after being summoned, only to find himself a pawn in his counterpart's, the warlock Nicholas Blair's machinations.
1. Chapter 1

THE CHANGELING

Chapter 1

"So it is over, this time." David said "the danger is past."

"Not wholly. Eliot is still Hallie's son, and Laura's grandson and great-great-grandson."

"Yes, of course. The danger will still be there." David agreed, a bit sourly.

"It is something that you, and him, must be aware of. As soon as he is grown enough to understand he must be told. And he will need guidance when the time comes to marry. He should, ideally, marry someone touched by darkness... Georgina might be a good match. Not only she is Angelique's daughter, but she spent some time in my womb, in contact with my werewolf inheritance, and at the time Angelique was drawing power from Megan's energy, so she is also touched by vampire powers... She might be the ideal wife for him."

"Eliot might not agree."

"Which means that we will have to be very vigilant with any girl he brings home to the family."

"Not assume that the girl is a ordinary human as I did with Hallie." there was a touch of self-pity in David's words... "Hallie will not come back, will she?"

"Not for a while. And now she is a vampire. She is now wedded to Darkness... who knows, she might end up as Eliot's protector..."

"Did you have to make her a vampire?"

"It was necessary. She did not find the transition a pleasant one, but she knew that she must make the best of it. Once she has outgrown her pride and willfulness, she might learn wisdom yet."

David looked again at Amy, at her blinded eyes, which had been destroyed for his sake. He looked at her hands, unerringly shuffling the cards and laying patterns on the table which her eyes could not see, and yet she knew what they were and could read the message written on them.

"Amy, I am sorry."

"About my eyes? Don't be. They were lost in a good cause." she put her hand over his. "You did not will it nor did Eliot. It was a price that had to be paid, and I paid it."

"Still, I caused it. I was the one who married Hallie, and..."

"Stop blaming yourself for a story that as old by the time you were born. You did not begin it. And it will not be you who ends it. You were a player, same as me. If there is blame, you can try fixing it on Laura, on Hallie, on Ra himself."

"Still, when I think of the way I behaved. All I ever did was feel sorry for myself... when I think of all the wrong decisions I made."

"Our lives are full of good and bad decisions. We should not castigate ourselves more than necessary. Here, this is the first card of the deck. The Fool. So low, that it does not even have a number. That's us, most of the time. We seek to become wise, as the Magician, but mostly we learn the wrong things, and become adept at trickery, not true wisdom. So it is that the Magician means both wisdom achieved, and base trickery, depending on the choices we make... You were a fool, as we all are. You made bad choices, you stepped too close to the abyss. And regret over it is only useful if you learn from your mistakes."

"I should not have married Hallie. I should have married you."

Amy shook her head. "I once thought that."

"I still love you, Amy."

"Do you?"

"Yes. Do you love me?"

Amy did not answer. She had dreaded this moment, she had dreaded the knowledge that the choice would be given her, and that it would not be a true choice."

"Do you?" David insisted.

"David" she spoke slowly "David. I am not free to love or not love... when I chose to become what I became, to free myself and you, I gave up my chance for a normal life... I am not human, not anymore. I am a Sybil, and this is not my home anymore. I will have to go to the labyrinth and stay there."

"But what do you want?"

"It is no longer a question of what I want, but what I have to do. The power that possesses me is a jealous one. If it thought that your presence would weaken me and compromise my... service, it would destroy you. I have been given great power., and now I must live on its terms."

"It is unfair!"

"It may be, but it is what it is."

* * *

"Adam" Carolyn put her hand on her husband's arm. "I don't know how to say this."

"If it is what I think it is, don't worry as to how your say it." Adam smiled. "Just say it."

Carolyn embraced him closely "Do you still want me, spoiled child that I am?"

"I am no prize myself. We just have to keep reminding ourselves of what is important. And not to take each other for granted."

Carolyn nodded. "I neglected you and Edmund awfully, didn't I?"

"Edmund is OK. We got to be friends, him and I. Now I only have to get Roger to look kindly on me. Or at least nor murderously."

Carolyn sighed. "We really manage to screw ourselves up, don't we?"

"But we get up and try again."

"What do you say to a second honeymoon?"

"I say that it is overdue."

Carolyn hesitated, the asked. "Do you have Vicky's address? I want to write to her, too."

* * *

Chris and Oriana packed.

"You don't want to stay any longer?" Oriana asked, more to assuage her own conscience than anything else.

"No. We have done all we came to do. We helped when we could. Now Amy's gone where we cannot follow her."

"It seems a pity."

"She is alive and reasonably happy. She is following her destiny. And we have our own lives to lead, and there is nothing we can do for her, and nothing to hold us in Collinsport except some friends. Our lives are in Florida..."

He was right.

"I wonder." Oriana said.

"What you wonder?"

"She will have no children. Nor will you. Nor I. So you could say that Quentin's werewolf curse has come to an end."

Chris snorted. "This branch of the curse. There may be others."

"Others?"

"Great grandfather Quentin has been tomcatting through a long time and I doubt that he used protection. I think that there are more werewolves of his line going around. Only we have no way of contacting them."

* * *

"You mean that they were only trying to warn me?" Urien could not hide his disbelief. "Zoya, and Yolanda, and Loomis?"

"Surprising as it may sound. they were." Barnabas said. "They had an enemy in common with me, and it mattered more than any grievances they might harbor against me."

"Yes. I imagine it was so... but I was too scared to know better."

"You had no reason to trust Yolanda, who once tried to kill you, nor Zoya, who attacked you. As for Loomis, you had no reason to believe in his benevolence, either."

"Yeah... What happened to them, afterwards?"

"Zoya and Yolanda are free. All of Hallie's salamanders are free. Robert Loomis gained revenge on Hallie, which he wanted. What will be their final destiny, I cannot say. Maybe the Catholics are right, and they are in Purgatory... In any case, Angelique assured me that they won't bother us any more."

"And Hallie? You did..."

"Yes. I turned her into a vampire. As Amy requested. It was her price for extending protection to her."

"It might make her more dangerous... And she is dangerous. She wanted to burn her own child... I heard the things she wanted..."

'Yes. She could be dangerous. But no under the rules that Amy laid. She is to be enslaved to some sorceress who will keep her on a short leash. Until she learns wisdom, Angelique tells me."

"And you believe her?'

"I do. As I believe Amy... Believe me, Amy will not let her break loose and hurt us ever again."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Megan was furious "How dare you?" she shouted to Angelique.

"I am sorry you had to be kept in the dark. But it was Amy running the show, not me."

"How dare she, or you, enslave a vampire?"

Angelique understood. "Hallie was no ronin. She was a never a free vampire that we enslaved."

"She is a vampire enslaved by a sorceress."

"She was turned into a vampire after she accepted our protection, after she begged for it, accepting any terms we cared to lay down. Which included enslavement. Once she accepted it, then she would become a vampire so that she could be both more useful and more easy to control by her new mistress."

"A vampire enslaved by a sorceress... We know how it works out."

"Number one, Phyllis is not like the sorcerers of old. She is no power worshipper.. Number two, Hallie chose this, because she knew what the penalty she would have to pay if we did not protect her. Number three, Amy had no reason to be merciful to Hallie. She was much more merciful than Hallie had the right to expect. Do I need to tell you what she had planned to do, and how many victims she had accumulated in the meantime?"

"Worse than you?"

"She needed to be stopped, same as I needed to be stopped. Until I learned wisdom. When Hallie learns wisdom she may yet be free and join the other ronin. But now the ronin have no jurisdiction over her, and neither do you."

"And you lied to me."

"It was not my show to run, but Amy's. She has come into her power now. You can complain to her if you wish...

"I am not the one to complain. The ronin are. Do you know how they are going to take it? They may end up asking for your head."

"They have no right."

"They are paranoid, and you managed to bring back their worst nightmare."

"They should not. I explained to you that she was never a norin."

"Remember Roxanne Drew? They ones that she enslaved were never ronin. And I still executed her.. They may ask the same about you... I know they will ask for the execution of Barnabas, since he was the one who actually did it. And he knew what would happen afterwards..."

"They cannot!"

"They can and they will. I will go there, and see what I can salvage out of this sorry mess."

* * *

"You know that I have to go there." George said to Barnabas. "We owe it to these people. We destroyed the only world they knew, and we cannot let them become tests subjects for someone's idea of an utopia."

"You really think that Howard...?"

"Well, you know what he is like. "

"A cold blooded killer when he has to be."

"Worse, a soured idealist. He had high hopes for Israel, and cannot accept that reality cannot match his dreams. Now he has another chance to make his utopia a reality... Utopian dreams have a way of turning sour. Remember the French Revolution? Before you know it, there is a guillotine, and people being driven in tumbrels to it."

"We should talk about it at the Board of Trustees."

"I want to take a good look by myself beforehand. I have a bad feeling about him and Derek, and Roxanne... You now that Roxanne is another cold blooded killer."

"But they are not married to each other."

"Which is worse. I suspected from the start that she took Derek because she could not have Howard... I am afraid that she may be tried of settling for Derek. Both Derek and Frances are in the way... I _have_ to be there."

"Can't Patterson handle it?"

"If what I think is true, Patterson will need all the backup he can get.."

"Do you want me to come with you?"

"No. I do not know if having a vampire around will not make things worse. Don't forget, these people do not have the habitude of you. Getting used to your... habits will be an added strain, that we do not need... If nothing else, I can talk Frances into coming back. With any excuse. And in the meantime I will try to mediate between Howard and Derek... Not that it may help any if Howard is so set in his plans. But I want to make sure that Howard understands that the Board of Trustees is fully behind Derek's efforts to have the people of Egg City slowly absorbed into the American mainstream. And that we are putting safeguards so that we can start bringing young women out to learn American ways. That may slow Howard a bit."

"And get into his head to eliminate you."

"He cannot eliminate the whole Board of Trustees. He hurts me or Derek, and he may have to deal with you, Angelique, and Megan. I want him to understand that. I want to kick some sense into him and make him forget any utopian dreams he has.

* * *

Nicholas Blair stood in front of the opaque figure who had summoned him.

"You shall soon have the chance you asked for" the figure said. "This is your chance, Nicholas Blair, the last chance you will ever be given, so don't you fail me."

"I will not fail. I will do as you ask... but what is that? Who are you? Why can't I see your face?"

"You just be patient, Nicholas.

"I am patient."

"Then ask no questions of me. Your time is coming and you must be ready for it."

"I will do so. I will do your will unconditionally. I will expunge the last vestiges of the love for Maggie Evans that I still harbor."

"Your love or what is left of it, is of no concern to me. Your blind obedience is. Disobedience, even the slightest one will destroy the plan."

Nicholas bowed his head, beneath the contempt that he knew his new master held for him.

He had come low in the world.. Nothing kept him from getting drunk night after night. Even without Angelique's shadow to compel him, he still drank.

He still had his powers...but for how much ,longer?

He just had to obey his new master.

* * *

Angelique kept thinking about what Megan had told her. Should she tell George of it? But what could George do about it? He would need his wits back at the egg., not worrying about something he could not change.

So, instead she just said the spell words and saw a fine mist envelop George.

He was now back in the jeweled world that he had escaped not so long ago.

The ground then had been blackened, burned by the dragon's breath. Now it was covered with fresh vegetation. Clear water ran through the stream. The trees were sprouting new leaves. Real leaves, not the jewels set there by Vassily Petofi.

It was alive again. A self-sustaining community.

And what could be wrong with that? Maybe that was the best. Who said that people had to live in the U.S.A.? Who said that Howard could not build a viable community there? Who was he to decide what was best for the people here? If they wanted to stay, how could he force them out?

He did not want to force them out. Only to have the choice to go. And wanted them to have the knowledge before they chose. A choice made in ignorance was worse than no choice at all.

The problem with benevolent despotism, which Howard was so set in establishing, was that despots grew less and less benevolent as time went on. There were no checks and balances in the community, and little chance of developing by themselves... The people had been trained to be serfs. Under Howard they world be serfs kindly treated, but still serfs.

It was a short road to the castle. He had been in it before, but had not walked then. He had been dragged in a net.

His mouth grimaces as he recalled the details of his abduction, and the nightmare that followed.

It was over. Vassily Petofi was dead. Nastassia was dead. Their power was done, and whatever problems there were, had nothing to do with them.

Still, he did not like to remember those things.

* * *

Dr. Blair shook his head in amazement. What was he doing here?

He knew the answer. He had stepped into the changing room at Collinwood. And it had indeed changed, with himself in it.

But why was he here at all? He had no reason to come here...

He had heard a call, a summons...

Someone had called him to this dimension.

Roxanne. She had once bitten him, as a way to keep tabs on him, to know if he was in trouble and might need help. And to allow her to summon him...

She still had that power, evidently. And for some reason, she wanted him to come to her.

He walked through the deserted rooms. It was Collinwood, yet so different. These rooms were not used here. In _his_ Collinwood every room (except the changing one, which he kept locked) was filled with children, maybe overfilled, but where else could they go?

Here the rooms were abandoned, useless, and he almost cried for the waste of it.

He left Collinwood by the side door. In that, both Collinwood were identical...Even the state of repair of the door.

He looked upon it as he walked away. Just like his own. Only without the sign calling it the Quentin Collins Memorial Home for Children was missing...

He would not find Roxanne here. His best bet might be the Old House, with Barnabas. He would recognize him and help him find Roxanne. (he remembered another problem - his counterpart had left bad memories here).

But Barnabas would be now sleeping in his coffin. And it was a long day.

He looked in his pockets. He hoped that the money he carried was good enough... Well, from what he had gathered, they still used green dollars, with Presidents' faces in them. Washington for ones. Lincoln for fives, Hamilton for tens., Jackson for twenty, Grant for fifty, Franklin for one hundred... Luckily there had been no Presidents after Grant where there history had become different...

He should be able to buy a dinner, and hang at the cafe until it was time to meet Barnabas...

Roxanne better have a good reason to summon him, he thought with irritation. He was busy enough as it was.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Frances was the first one he met as he entered the castle. She was carrying a large sheaf of papers in her arms, and acting as if those were important papers.

"George Brant, of all people!" she said, cheerfully. There was a slight bitterness in her voice. Maybe she resented the fact that he and others outside the egg seemed to have forgotten their existence.

If it was there, he accepted the reproof. They had been lax in their duty towards their wards, and while there were excuses, they still should have done more.

"I came to see how you were doing, and if you needed something that I could bring."

:As you can see, we are working hard. I had no idea when I agreed to come here that there would be so much work involved. Not that I am complaining, mind you. After all, Howard works even harder... I wish I knew where he gets his energy from. He always has some new idea to implement... And Roxanne, she's another dynamo..."

"Life in Collinsport is nowhere as hectic. Still, we manage to get trouble."

"Yes, life in Collinsport was a lot easier. My patients there understood that I was trying to help them, and followed directions. Here, it is a struggle not to have them drink eyewash solution, or make aspirin into footbaths...At least we managed to convince them that you do not use manure to staunch bleeding... before they did it, since Vassily healed them anyway... Well, that's what you get when you treat people at their level of education..."

"You have your work cut out for you, I see."

"By the way, what happened to Maggie and Joe? Derek told us that they were turned to stone, and then restored, but never got the whole story."

"It all began when Adam saw this mermaid."

"A mermaid? You mean that you have mermaids in Collinsport, on top of all else?"

"We got this one at least. And it was not what we expected."

He told her all of it.

"Poor Barnabas!" Frances said after he was finished. "Why had he to be the one to be cut up? It had not been his fault."

"He was the only vampire we could use."

"It was unfair."

"Life is unfair."

"What else happened?"

"David's wife, Hallie, turned out to be a phoenix, just like his mother. She wanted to sacrifice her son, and turn David into a phoenix too. We did stop her. Or rather, Amy stopped her."

That made another long tale, and George told it. Then he decided that he had been sidetracked long enough.

"Well, that's the big news in Collinsport. We seem to be heading for another calm interlude, and we better enjoy it while it lasts. Now I want to hear the news here. And what you need and how we can help."

'Not much news. Just a lot of work."?

"There must be some juicy gossip you want to share."

"We don't indulge in such." Frances said a bit stiffly.

"You mean that you deprive yourself of its joys? Come on, a bit of it warms the soul."

"We consider it an undesirable activity."

"I see. On the other hand you many not want to share because you resent me and the way I seem to have forgotten you. I do talk with Derek now and then..."

"Yes, you talk with Derek, and with no one else." she said this more than a bit sourly. "I bet that he DOES tell you a lot of juicy gossip."

"I know that Derek likes to complain. And given his past occupation, I learned to be skeptical about what he says. So I came over to check by myself. I cannot go on relying on what he says."

"Or maybe you believe him. That's what Howard says."

"I know that he and Howard are not getting along. Maybe I will have to mediate between the two before it gets ugly. I want to hear both sides of it."

"What business is it of yours?"

"I am in the Board of Trustees, remember."

":And that's enough reason?"

"Yes, should it not be?"

* * *

Amy laid down her cards. Her fingers moved over their flat surfaces could tell her more than her eyes ever could. She knew that Barnabas pitied her for her loss, and wished that he could somehow make it up to her.

"There is more than one way of seeing" she admonished him. "and pity is not what you should feel."

"I didn't.."

'You do. Even though you see me in my post at the labyrinth, even though you know that I am a Sybil, you still see me as little Amy, a little troubled girl that needed a lot of help. And a troubled adolescent who still needed it. And a troubled young woman who got stronger bit by bit, but still needed help...But that is past. I have come into my power, and you are here, in my labyrinth,"

"Do you regret it?"

"Sometimes. Not as much as you regret what you are... Because I did not have to pay the price you did...But once you become what I am, there is no going back."

"It seems a dull existence. Nothing bur reading the cards, and giving advice."

"It is not. Not just reading the past and the future, but helping shape it. And I am never lonely. People come in and out with questions and news. You came here, in your dreams, as you laid in your coffin for the day. Others come, and I learn, hear questions, and give answers. And you want answers, don't you?"

"Yes. About me."

"What about you?"

"I was told that I would die soon. I want to know how and when."

"Do you trust the person who told you this?'

"Yes."

"Well" She laid down the King of Cups. "This is you."

"Not the King of Cups. I never achieved it."

"Don't be falsely modest. This is you."

Amy laid down the next card.

"Death" She did not try to sweeten the blow by telling him that it might only mean great change. His fate had been sealed and he could only accept it.

Death would come and he would accept it...

The Three of Cups came, representing a goal. A birth, love multiplying itself. From his death good would come, and love would renew itself. George would heal, comforted by the need to care for Georgina...

"Yes, his daughter will comfort him." Amy said, echoing his thoughts. Things will be as they are meant to be.

"Do you know when it will happen?"

"I cannot tell yet, but I can try to make it clearer, bare the forces that are behind it.

The Ten of Swords. Endless strife and heartbreak lay behind him. The struggle would soon be over.

The next card was the Fool. Also in the past. He had been guilty of great foolishness. And also of great daring, of glorious gambles, of daring to say and do what others didn't. Now that too was past, the foolishness and the glory.

"It is all past now." Amy said. "all but the final battle."

For the Tower of Destruction came next, foretelling the future.

"Destruction for whom? Just me? Or will it touch others?"

"For more than one. And that downfall might be earned. The outcome will depend on the battle itself."

The Two of Wands came next, representing Barnabas.

"Yes. This is you. You have achieved balance and inner peace. Whatever comes, you are ready for it."

"But what about the battle?'

"That's the next card."

It as the Magician "Beware of returning warlocks"

"Vassily Petofi? Nicholas Blair?"

"Too early to tell."

The Page of Sword was next.

"Caution. Be on guard. What seems calm and friendly might not be so."

"Yes, Be cautious. About what?"

The Moon card came next.

"It is not clear where the danger will come. It is dark still. But enlightenment will come... Beware of hasty impressions and decisions. What looks like an enemy might be a friend. What looks like a friend might be an enemy."

"Yes. Be cautions. And beware of returning warlocks. And this is my last battle."

* * *

Had she said too much? Frances sighed. It was difficult to hold things back when talking to George. The man was good at what he did, and asking questions and getting answers was part of it.

At least she had said nothing about Roxanne. With the kind of mind that George had, he could put the worst possible construction on anything she said, specially if Derek had been telling him stories about his wife...

Of course, she and Howard had problems. They were just overworked, both of them, and that made them irritable... Yes, she wished that Howard and Roxanne did not work together so much... But from that George could build up a whole soap opera...

She did not expect things to be perfect when she married Howard.

True, she had married Howard when she understood that her undeclared love for Barnabas would go nowhere, and Howard was close enough... True she resented Roxanne... but to blow it out of proportion, and to jeopardize what they were trying to build, just to satisfy Derek...


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The waitress gave her a curious look, Dr. Blair noticed. She brought his coffee and pastry, and was noticeably nervous doing so.

His counterpart must have left a lot of bad memories here, he thought. The sooner he cleared this with Barnabas, the better...

Although, given Barnabas' strength, and bad memories, it might be dangerous for him drop unannounced. He needed someone to convince him that he was the Dr. Blair of that other dimension, not the troublemaker he knew from this one...

If he could find Buffy Harrington, or Edmund, they could vouch for him... He would have to ask about them. If those people giving him dirty looks would be willing to do it.

What kind of troublemaker was the Blair in this Collinsport?

"There you are!" Angelique strode into the cafe. "How dare you show your face here?"

* * *

"It is not easy, our job," Howard said, firmly. "And Pearce does not make it any easier with his incessant complaints. I know, you are his friend, and you take his side automatically. But you know what he is."

"A hustler." George said sympathetically. "I have had to deal with him in the past."

"So you know what he's capable of. You know what kind of stupid ideas he can get."

"I know... I know."

'And still you came here." Howard's eyes narrowed. "Why did you.?"

"To see if I could calm him down... I should have come sooner, and tried to keep thing smooth, but I got busy with other problems... You know, things in Collinsport are not as easy and peaceful as you seem to think."

"Yeah... We wondered why you had forgotten us."

Curious, George noted. Howard resented his absence, his leaving him alone. But also resented his presence...

"We had a mermaid, and a gorgon, and a U.S. Representative turned to stone. And then Hallie, David's wife, turned out to be a phoenix... Yes, I neglected you. But I had a good excuse.."

In any case he smiled and tried to placate Howard. He could not keep from remembering that both Howard and Roxanne were experienced killers... and that if he seemed to be a threat to what they wanted...

"I just want to kick some sense on Derek. I tried talking to him, but he says that I know nothing for what goes in here, and so refuses to listen. So I figured out that if I came here, he might be more reasonable."

He hoped that they believed it...

He did want to talk to Patterson as to what was really going on...

* * *

"I am not _that_ Nicholas!" Dr. Blair screamed from the ground, where Angelique's energy blow had thrown him. "I am Dr. Blair... Buffy Harrington knows me! Edmund Collins knows me!"

Angelique was ready to strangle him when she noticed the lack of magical power to strike against. She hesitated...

He did not _feel_ like that worthless brother of his...

"So you are Dr. Blair?"

"'And you are Angelique... but you never had a twin..."

"And you say that Buffy can vouch for you?"

"Yes. Buffy Harrington. She was the housekeeper, and she left with Barnabas and Edmund."

"On, you mean Buffy Torrance. She's married and has a kid now. Well" she offered him a hand to get up. "We'll see if your story checks up."

He got up and wiped his clothes. He looked at the waitress... she probably had called Angelique. Or the manager... His counterpart had not left good memories here, it seemed..

"Well, you can start telling me about my twin sister, Dr. Blair."

* * *

"What do you think about George?" Frances asked Howard.

"What do you want me to think?" he shrugged. He's well meaning, he is sincere. But he is not here. He does not even know what the real problem is. He has it easy, sitting on the sidelines. How can he judge fairly? You and I know how much hard work is involved."

"I know. He tried to apologize to me for that. They certainly do not have it easy in Collinsport, either."

"And he's probably easing his guilt feelings by poking his nose into everything."

"Well, he does mean well. I don't think that he will harm us, not when he learns what is going on."

"You think so?"

"Come, this is no enemy. This is George Brant. We know him, both of us."

"I am not so sure, myself"

* * *

Frank and Buffy were engrossed in the discussion of the election results when Angelique and Dr. Blair knocked at the door. They both agreed that luckily Reagan had not had any coattails, Still, Frank bemoaned the fact that Reagan was basically pushing the hot fudge sundae diet, promising that you could eat all the chocolate fudge you wanted, and still lose weight.

So engrossed they were that Angelique had to ring the bell several times before they noticed there was someone at the door.

Buffy did not have any trouble recognizing Dr. Blair. She welcomed him, and began peppering him with questions, and answering his.

Angelique relaxed. This was indeed Dr. Blair. Her worthless brother was still in Florida or someplace away from here.

"I will leave you now. I will come at dusk to escort you to meet Barnabas" she said. "I better vouch for you with him. One violent attack today is all you can handle."

* * *

David held Eliot in his arms. Eliot was his son... He knew it at last. And now with Hallie gone, a lot of his self-doubt was gone too.

It had never been his fault. Never been Eliot's fault. Eliot was only a child that needed taking care of...

And he wanted to try.

"Are you taking him with you?" Carolyn asked.

"I will, soon. I will have to make arrangements when I get back... But I want him. I know that he is my son... Still it scares me..."

'Scares you that you are not going to end up doing better than Uncle Roger after all?"

"Yes."

"He never knew about Laura. He took what he saw a her betrayal real hard. He blamed himself and he blamed you. You mow the truth. So Eliot is safe with you."

* * *

"Roxanne could not have summoned you." Buffy told Dr. Blair. "She is no longer a vampire."

"But I know her summoning. It felt like it... How come she is not a vampire?"

"Long story. She came looking for Barnabas. Found that he was... otherwise engaged and got mad. His friends decided to stop her before she stared doing damage and captured her. They told her she had to be the guinea pig for Julia's Hoffman cure, or she'd not be released... Well, she is now human, and in the egg."

"The egg? What egg?"

That involved another long explanation that made Dr. Blair's head ache...

It had been bad enough the short walk with Angelique. They had come across Joe Haskell and other people who he had learned to fear in his own world. Not now, but still...

Thee were so many things changed that he could barely make sense of it...

As soon as this mystery of his summoning was solved, he was going back to his own world.

"Of course," Buffy said. "It may be that either Edmund or I subconsciously summoned you. We were involved both of us on some powerful rite, and we may have tapped on its power, and when we thought of you..."

"You think that it is so?"

"It is a good explanation."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

"Beware of returning warlocks"

The words rang in Barnabas' mind as he got up at dusk. What Amy had told him... And not just about that...

He opened the door behind the library to get out.

And faced Nicholas Blair

"You!" he hissed menacingly "What evil are you planning now?'"

But before he could put his hands around Nicholas' throat Angelique stood in front of him.

"This is not the Nicholas you think,." she said, quickly "He is Dr. Blair from Parallel Time."

"Yes. he is." Buffy said quickly. "He told me enough of what is going on back there."

"Dr. Blair" Barnabas tried to digest it.

Blair decided that it was lucky that he had not come to Barnabas all alone... He had not realized before how fearsome Barnabas could be, nor that he would see him as a threat.

* * *

Amy shuffled her deck. She felt an uneasiness. Someone had come to Collinsport. Someone who looked like an enemy, but was not...

But also a pathway for the evil that she knew was coming...

If only she could see more clearly. The cards did not provide her with answers. Not yet...

The players were not here. And she might be asking the wrong questions.

Sometimes the cards did that, and trying to force the answer out of them did not help.

It was a mystery why the cards did what they did, why they played hide and seek with the truth...

But she knew that when the moment came, all would be clear.

The moment would come when she would know how many returning warlocks there were, and how many...

Yet, why had Dr. Blair come?

Whatever it was, it had something to do with Roxanne, she felt.

So why not make a spread for Roxanne?

* * *

"Well, now that the war is over and we are reconstructing, I am the director of the Quentin Collins Memorial Home for Children,"

"I see... I am sorry I attacked you, Dr. Blair. It is that your counterpart left a lot bad memories. And I have been warned about returning warlocks."

"So you thought I was him."

"Yes, I was also warned that what looked like an enemy would turn out to be a friend."

"Good. Now If we can figure out why I got summoned, I can get it solved, and I can get back to my job. And believe me, I have plenty to do at home."

"Well, we know that it cannot be Roxanne." Buffy said. "She no longer has the power to summon anybody."

"Is it true that she lives now inside an egg?"

"An enchanted Faberge egg." Barnabas explained. "There were a lot of people living there, and they needed taking care of. They needed schoolteachers, among other things, and Roxanne is setting up the Department of Education. She is married now."

"I keep thinking that either I or Edmund must have called him subconsciously. We were in touch with Amy's power not to long ago, and that power must have reached through the dimensions to call him here." We were in contact with some real powerful forces then, if I recall."

"But did you have any reason to call on him?" Barnabas mused. "Roxanne might have had a fresher memory of you. And you were one of her people... "

"Yes. I was."

"She probably did call on you more than once. She probably had the habitude of it. And she may have run into something that brought you to her mind."

"But she has no power to summon me now, you said."

"But she is in contact with powerful stuff, too. The egg is a magic egg, after all, and she may have tapped into that power."

"So I might have to see her, after all"

* * *

George took off his shoes and let himself down on the bed which had been provided for him. It was time to take stock of the impressions and figure out what his next move would be.

Howard was not happy to see him. It took no great insight to see that. He was civil, even cooperative, but certainly wished him gone.

Part of it was justified, of course. He had stood outside, while they worked hard to make something of this place. And now he came on an inspection tour, to pass judgment upon them...

How would he himself react to someone who did that to him? How had he reacted each time the FBI dropped on him with suggestions... He had enjoyed Curt Kingsley discomfiture, hadn't he?

But still...

One lesson that he had learned was that given a choice of different things to believe, people always chose the one that implied less work for them.

To overlook what Howard as doing was much less work for him. So he should distrust his belief...

One thing about Frances that kept nagging at him. It was as if she was trying to hard... Brought to mind Sandy, when she was married to Herbert, and doing her best to look like the proper Christian wife and mother...

There was something that Frances knew, but did not allow herself to accept that she knew...

* * *

"You did win the war, didn't you?" Barnabas asked Blair

"Of course, we did. It was quite nasty. quite ugly, but it seemed to last forever. But it ended. One day it was over, and we were in power. That's when Roxanne said to me that the new government did not need a vampire, and that it was time she found you again. I wondered if it was wise... we may still need her, but she wanted to see you." he shrugged.

"Only it did not work out." Angelique said, amused. "she did not know him very well, I am afraid."

Barnabas sighed, but did not comment. No need to go over his own shortcomings...

"And you stayed."

"Yes. There was a lot to do."

"You are the director of a home for children."

"Yes. One thing that war creates is a lot of orphans, with no one to care for them. We try to do that. At least Collinwood is large enough to accommodate a large number of them. Still, we are overcrowded, and a number of children sleep two to a bed. But they got beds, and a roof over their heads, and a full meal, even if sometimes it is only once a day. And they get education. We keep them alive and fed and sometimes we can reunite them with their families. It is unending work. At least they don't die as they used to in the first moths."

'You seem to be doing good work. Is there some way I can help?"

"It is not your world. And there is a limit to what you can do. But we can use some supplies."

"Good. Give us a list, and we will use the changing room to deliver them."

Buffy was a bit embarrassed by this. To tell the truth, she had given little thought to Blair or the others. She was just happy to be out of that place, and could not care for the ones that were still stuck.

But there was something that she could do. Not go back... She might end up being a burden there. But she could deliver supplies. And maybe other things that Blair might need.

Blair was just grateful for any offers. He really did not expect much of them. It was not their world, anyway. Any help he was grateful for..

And he was beginning to enjoy his vacation...

Now he had to go see Roxanne to see if she really did need him, or it had been a reflex of hers when faced with a difficult situation which may have needed his presence to solve... Something that had been solved, anyway.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Barnabas stood over Widow's Hill. Dr. Blair had left, as Buffy had insisted he stayed with them until his trip to the egg. Urien was asleep. And he was now alone in the night, looking ahead, and into the past...

So many years ago, he had seen Josette fall off the cliff. Fell, or jumped away from him... He no longer mourned his lost love, he realized. only the terrible waste of it... Josette had deserved better.. but hadn't they all?

And then he recalled the ship, and the real reason why his condition had been imposed on him... Josette might have been an innocent young woman, but she shared in the family guilt... she paid for the slaves worked to death so that she could have a soft life...

Fair. unfair... it was what it was...

He remembered that night. His own life was over, he had thought. There would be only eternity for him, ruled by his unholy thirst, and mourning all he had lost.

But it had not ended then. After the worst of the pain was over, it had begun again. Slowly, painfully, Life had asserted its rights with him.

And now...

Now it would be George's turn to know the pain of loss. George who was trying to convince himself that Barnabas could finally take off that big target on his chest that made him likely to get killed before the next century came along... He was making plans of going together someplace else...

Same as he once had made plans about life with Josette...

It would not be. Because the target on his chest was not gone away. Because this time, the arrow would strike true...

It wasn't fair, but that was how it would be.

The only thing he did not know was _how_...

At least George had been right when he had rejected the idea of being converted into what Barnabas was. It would be a nasty trick to do that, and then die on him...

He thought of Josette again. He had thought it was love then. And maybe it was. He was fond of her. Not the passion that he had known with Angelique, but they could have been comfortable together...But now he wondered if that would have been enough... If he, like so many men would have kept Josette as the honored wife and mother of his children, while keeping "Angelique as a mistress...

He recognized what a foolish, shallow man he had been then... No, he had not deserved what Angelique had done to him. Those who had died because of it, did not deserve it. But he certainly had deserve a blow on the head. Or a swift kick him the ass...

But there was no escaping it. Because he decision had not truly been Angelique's. Nor his. The witch doctor who used his own outrage and despair in the hold of the slave ship had decreed that vengeance must happen... and it did...

Poor Josette... Poor Ruby Tate. Poor Maude Browning. Poor Crystal Chabot, Poor Suky Forbes... All because of the sins of their ancestors...

And now the end came for him... He had fulfilled his purposes, and was not needed any longer... He had been given more time than he had the right to expect...

And now it was coming to an end...

And he had not told George of it...

Maybe it was better that George not be distracted from what he had to do in Egg City...

Or maybe he was too much of a coward to do it.

Dear, dear George. How could tell him goodbye? Hold him in his arms one last time? Could he see the pain in his eyes?

It would happen, whether he liked it or not...

* * *

Buffy had gone out with Lyndon, and Blair was all alone, drinking another cup of coffee. Nice coffee making machines they had in this reality...

He realized that he was not wholly comfortable with Buffy. There was much social distance between them, back home. And now she talked to him equal to equal... It grated him, though he knew it should not...

He was too much in love with his social position, and to hear Buffy, who had always deferential to him, talk the way she did, make him feel... demoted.

Though that was not the case at all...

With luck he could clear the situation with Roxanne soon, and be back to his familiar world.. Back to people he knew and who knew him. Away from the cold stares of those who only knew his disgraceful counterpart... Who was quite a nasty piece of goods, if you were by the way others reacted to him...

But then, if Joe Haskell knew what his counterpart was like... he grinned at the thought. Joe Haskell better never cross into that other reality, for sure.

'The knock at the door was not too loud a sound, nor a truly threatening one. But still he felt a chill of fear overtake him when he heard it.

There was another knock. And another.

He should not answer it, some voice told him. But then his common sense kicked in. Some salesman or other. He would just say he was not interested and send him on his way.

He opened the door.

A man stood there. A man who looked just like himself.

Nicholas Blair smirked at him. So that's what he would have looked like if he had kept to the straight and narrow.

Dr. Blair stood paralyzed He tried to summon strength to slam the door on this... intruder, this doppelganger... he wanted to shout questions at him, as if he was the reason why he had been summoned to this strange reality.

Nicholas saw him struggle to regain his will, and smiled sardonically.

"Too late, Dr. Blair. You came here for one purpose only, and this is it." he took out a small glass pillbox "Look at this."

Doctor Blair looked at it. It shone in Nicholas' hand, attracting his eyes, pulling him after it.

Then the pillbox grew larger. It loomed over him, and he was being pulled towards it. He came closer and closer to it... it began to swallow him...

Nicholas saw Dr. Blair be absorbed in the pillbox. he studied the process, still smiling sardonically, then he looked at the empty spot where Dr. Blair had stood.

Dr. Blair was in the pillbox, embedded like an insect in amber...

It was done. Dr. Blair had been taken care of, and he had taken his place with no one being the wiser.

It had been easy. The one who had recruited him had been right about this thing.

Now he had to convince himself that the was indeed, the good doctor Nicholas Dylan Blair. The kindly, upright physician form another reality. So Angelique would send him to the egg, to meet Roxanne..

And once there, he would do stir all the trouble he could, until the situation exploded...

He sat at the table, where Dr. Blair had left his coffee, and stared at the pillbox. He probed for Dr. Blair's mind, and once contact was made, he let that mind seep into his...

It was a strange mind, full of concepts and feelings that he had not imagined could exist. This Blair was a woolly headed dreamer and idealist, one who actually liked his fellow human beings, and thought they deserved his help.

It was strange to accept those ideas and feelings, or at least pretend he did. He wanted to laugh aloud at the ridiculousness of it.

He controlled himself. It would be disobedience to laugh and reject the new persona that he was seeking. The one who claimed his allegiance would not like it, and he knew that he could be very cruel in his punishments...

He would accept Dr. Blair's outlook in life. He would talk himself into believing that he was indeed Dr. Blair...

And he let the thoughts flow into him...

...He was Dr. Blair, who had sent away an overenthusiastic salesman. He pocketed, unthinkingly the pillbox he held, not even looked at it. and waited for Angelique to come so that she could send him to the egg...


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"The job of a lawman is never easy" Patterson said to George "But it has its satisfactions."

"I can see that you'd find more of them here than in Collinsport. People don't talk back to you here. And you don't have to put up with the Collinses and their sense of entitlement."

"Yes, in a sense it is better. But it is worse, too. There, they complain a lot and give you a lot of arguments. But they understand that they have to obey the law. Here they bow their heads, say "Yes, Yes" to anything you say, and the moment your back is turned they do as if they had not heard a word you say. If you want your orders obeyed, you have to be on their backs twenty four hours a day. That is impossible, so you end up a nervous wreck. Lord, how do I wish I had to deal with Civil Libertarians instead. Or Organized Crime. Something sensible."

George nodded, understanding the man's frustration.

"But that's not the worst." Patterson said. "It is knowing that I am sitting here on a powder keg, and I don't know how to stop it from going off."

"What powder keg?"

"Howard and Roxanne. With two inconvenient spouses between them."

* * *

"Are you ready, Dr. Blair?" Angelique asked him.

"Yes. I am." he answered sincerely, believing indeed that he was Dr. Blair, and that he was seeking "Roxanne to find an answer to his questions

Angelique spoke a few words, made some gestures and a silvery mist formed around him. It swirled around his body, made him lose contact with his surroundings, made him dizzy...

Then he was no longer in Angelique's room. He was in some forest...

And he was in a fog...

He could not think clearly.. He sat on the ground to clear his thoughts... He was Dr. Nicholas Blair, and he was coming...

No... No doctor.

He was Nicholas Blair, the warlock...

* * *

"Frances, for how long have we known each other? " George said. " We are friends. Barnabas is certainly your friend, and so am I... And I know that you are hiding something."

"It is nothing that you need to know." Frances said, a bit sourly.

He sensed it, the Sandy vibe. There was something that Frances was no allowing herself to know... because she though it was her duty not to notice...

"It is not that I want to make trouble. But I know that something is bothering you."

"Well, we are overworked, for sure. And we do not need you to make more trouble."

"I did not come to make trouble, only to see how I can make things easier for you."

"Derek is putting you up to it. I mean, I can see his point. He has a good heart, but he does not think things through, and he takes it personally when he is told that something cannot be done... I know that his heart in is the right place, and we works hard,,, and he's funny and..."

There was a softness when Frances talked about Derek. George wondered about it... He recalled that Derek also spoke well of Frances...

"Well, maybe Howard should let him do more things. Give in a little."

"But the things he teaches... all sorts of way of evade the law..."

Considering that he was bringing in illegal aliens, it made sense to give them survival skills...

"He's probably grooming them for a life of crime! That's why we do not want girls to go out! He would sell them into prostitution!'

George sighed. "Is that what Howard says?"

Frances hesitated. She did not believe it. But she felt that out of loyalty she should back Howard up... more so because she actually liked Derek...

He could see it now. He had seen Sandy play the same dance around Barnabas, and now Frances...

"Frances, you need a vacation." he said. "You are too tense. You need to unwind."

"I cannot leave here..."

"You can use it to lean what is going on in your profession... Actually you could accompany a group of nurses for some training at the hospital... You are teaching them, aren't you? Well, what if we arranged them to learn at the hospital?"

"You too want them to leave."

"I do not want them to leave. But I want trained nurses. You cannot do it all by yourself.. You need a break."

"So I do as you did, and leave?"

"For a few days. There are plenty of reasons why you should go. All good and legitimate reasons. You can do a lot better there if you are in charge of looking for supplies, and if you take advantage of what is offered. I know that there are a lot of new things going on in nursing, and it will do you good to catch up with them."

"Why are you so intent in getting me out of here?'"

"Because you are being run ragged, and you need to rest. You _do_ need a vacation."

"Or you want me out of the way."

Yes, he wanted her out of the way of the triangle between her, Howard, and Roxanne. He did not want her caught between two people for whom killing was always the first response,.

* * *

"Nick!" Roxanne put her arms around Blair. "What are you doing here?"

"You called me, didn't you? I felt the pull, this compulsion to go to the changing room and stay there, to be with you." Nicholas let Blair's thought processes mold his speech.

"But I didn't call you!"

"I was summoned. It might have been Buffy or Edmund, sometimeduring that... trouble they were in not long ago. But I had to make sure that you did not need me in any way. Angelique showed me the way here. I did have some bit of trouble because my counterpart here was a notorious troublemaker.

"I know. The warlock Nicholas Blair. I will have to introduce you to everyone and reassure them that you are not him. But come, you must have a lot to tell me."

'Well, there is not that much to tell. Plenty of work. It did not end with victory. True, we don't have to worry about knocks at the door at four AM, but the work never stops."

"Yes, I suspect that. I thought that I could get away from it... Of course, I had a good excuse..." she looked wistfully at him. "you saw through it, didn't you?"

"Yes. But you were right. A vampire in governing circles sooner or later become an embarrasment."

"In any case, I paid for it. They caught me here, told me to forget Barnabas, cured med, and then exilded me here to do the same kind of work that I would have ended up doing back there."

'Life _is_ full of ironies."

"By the way,, I am married now."

"Not to Barnabas."

"No, to Derek." The way she said his name told Nicholas that he had come upon a chink that he could exploit. "you won't believe it, as I didn't when I found out, but Barnabas no loger has girlfriends. He has a boyfriend."

"You mean he does it with men?"

"I almost killed the boyfirend when I found out... but... well... I ended up here."

* * *

"Jessica just had her baby. A beautiful baby girl" Louella told Willie.

"So Zeb is a new daddy? I hope that she helps him straighten up...I mean the way he gets mixed up with phoenixes..."

"I think he will. He has changed a lot."

"I hope so..."

"And guess what? Guess who else is pregnant?'

"Who? Someone we know?"

'Yes. Somebody you and I know very well. "

"Vicky?"

"No."

"Buffy again?"

'No..."

"Alma? Sandy?"

"It is me, you dummy! Pearl is going to be a sister!"


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

"Julia, there is something that I have to tell you. And ask you a couple of favors... I'd rather not tell you about it, but..."

"What is it?" Julia looked at Barnabas with misgivings. With that kind of preamble, it was not going to be good news.

"I want you and Kenneth to be Urien's legal guardians. And that you try to find good homes for my cats. They are good cats. Good mousers."

"But why can't you keep them" But she suspected already.

"Julia, I saw Dave again... That time you cut me open, to get Maggie and Joe back. After you were done, you knocked me out... and it was then that I had this dream. Only it was more than a dream."

"Was he angry in any way?"

"No. How could he be? No, he just told me what I had to know. He led me to a place, to meet others... and it was there that I understood why I was finally able to look at a cross. I was shown the pattern of my life. And I was told that I would die soon. That my time was upon me."

"It could have been only a dream."

"It was not only him that I saw. There was Bathia Mapes, who was the first one who fought for me. There was Old Munsungan. There was Eliot... it was a trial, just like Trask help, but this one was different. It all made sense, suddenly. I knew why so many things had to be. And thus I learned that I would not stay with you much longer."

"But..."

"Then I asked Amy to confirm it, and she did."

"I cannot accept it."

"The only thing that I regret is that you will be hurt. And George... I know that he is making plans for both of us, and I do not have the heart to tell him not to bother..."

Julia began to weep. She had never imagined it would end this way... And she tasted defeat. All she had done, all she had tried.. and it had not worked.

"I know that you are hurting Julia. I know that you were once in love with me and that the love remains. And you feel cheated, after all the experiments you did, after all the research, after all that, you are defeated... but you are not, Julia, What I am, I owe to you. Without you I would have been hunted down as a mad dog, staked, and good riddance. All that I am, all that I accomplished, I owe it to you... and what did I give you in return?'

"You... you gave me much, too."

Barnabas nodded. "Can I trust you to take care of Urien. George never really bonded with him... For him Urien is my son, not his... and he does not like the cats that much... Can you take care of them?"

"I will."

* * *

There was something about Blair... Roxanne could not put her finger on it, but he seemed different... Yes, he looked like Blair, sounded like him... remembered the same things, and yet...

Of course, it was not him. It was her that had changed. She was so accustomed to seeing him through vampire eyes, that seeing him with her human ones came as a shock...

"Do you regret it sometimes, leaving home?" he asked her, waiting to see her reaction.

"At times. At other times I think of all I gained."

There was something there. He might pry more into her relationship with Derek, and also with Howard and Frances, but there were less intrusive ways to find out.

Like now, that he was being introduce to all three of them, along with George Brant who was visiting. Brant gave him a sour look, but warmed up when told that it was not the Nicholas Blair that he knew. Then Brant went back to check on the undercurrents between Frances, Roxanne, Howard, and Derek...

They were so obvious that he did not need magical powers to read that all four had come, with time, to the realization that they had married the wrong people. And he knew that the likelihood of it being resolved amicably was small.

All he had t do was give a nudge. Tonight, after they went to sleep, he would cast a spell, in which all their yearnings and fears were unloosed and let it go on from there. Just a little nudge, no more. Then sit down, and enjoy the carnage.

* * *

Dr. Blair knew what was happening. He could follow the other Blair's thought processes. He knew what he was doing.

He saw lay down the tools of his craft, saw him chant the invocation, saw the invisible web being laid, and the tiny insects that would affix themselves on Frances, Derek, Roxanne, and Howard, making them lose all control, make them act up their darkest fears and desire...

He must try to stop him. He must reach out to someone. Shout out a warning... Put a stop to it somehow...

But how? He was completely helpless...

Still, there must be something that he could do...

They had told him about Amy Jennings, and what she had done... could he use the power of the Tarot?

Desperately he visualized the card of the Sun. The card with twins on it.

* * *

Amy laid down the cards. She felt uneasiness ever Dr. Blair had come to Collinsport. The cards had announced him and had warned that what looked like an enemy was a friend...

But what about the other half? What looked like a friend was an enemy?

No one contacted her, no one asked. It was settled then.

So why did she got the Sun card in the spread?

The Sun... Ra wanted revenge...

Or did it just mean danger? For her, the Sun meant danger. It would not be so for others...

Hallie was fully under control, made to obey Phyllis Wick and made to face the truth about herself. Without her, Ra lost contact with Collinsport..

Was there other meaning? Anything that pertained to Dr. Blair?

The Sun card had twins in it...

Twins. Dr. Blair, and Nicholas Blair.

Returning warlocks, she had told Barnabas.

Dr. Blair was not Nicholas, and had been accepted as such...

And if now Nicholas replaced Dr. Blair, once everyone accepted him?

What if?

She went for the cards.

The Hermit, The Magician.

Paired. Dr. Blair, the hermit, a wanderer though realities. Nicholas Blair, the Magician. Those two were closer than you imagined...

Why had been Blair called from Parallel Time? Not by Roxanne. Not by Edmund, not by Buffy.

By Nicholas Blair.

Fire rose from the Sun card.. Amy pulled her hand back screaming.

She had come close to a guarded secret and those who learned the truth would die...

But she was a Sybil in the Labyrinth, and hers was the power of the cards.

She took out the Moon card, with its nocturnal rains. The Star card. The Temperance card. The court cards of the suit of Cups. The pips of cup.

Water flowed from all of them, drowning the fire.

She smiled. Hers was the power. And it was up to her to undo the plans of Nicholas Blair and any other warlocks involved in this.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

It would be so easy to kill Frances...

In spite of herself the thought came back to Roxanne's mind. It scared her. She did not want it to happen. She had left the killing behind, in another world...

And yet...

Yet seeing Dr. Blair had brought it back...

And killing was easy... It would take only one blow and Frances' neck would snap..

But why did she keep thinking that? She did not want Frances to die...

Frances was in the way... And Derek was irritating.

And if they were out of the way, she could have Howard...

Nicholas saw her and smiled. It had begun.

* * *

Amy walked the corridor. She needed to find the proper center for what she meant to do.

There would be another game, just like the last. She would trace the pattern, as the last time, call her champions and strike...

She was the Sybil. She could see what was hidden, what was, and what might be. And she could choose what would be.

For this she had given up her life as a human, her life as Amy Jennings, daughter, sister, lover, friend.

She was now a Guardian... This was the end of the line that began with Quentin's werewolf curse, Jenny's madness and Magda's gypsy powers.

She was at the center. She knelt down and cut the cards.

It was Strength.

"Come to me," she said "I need you."

Roxanne Drew, the dead one appeared to her.

"You are needed You are the only one who can stop the killing before it happens."

Roxanne stood at her side as Amy laid a patter of cards.

A pattern of five. She would need a pattern of five to undo the evil of the returning warlocks.

Not warlock. Warlocks. Nicholas Blair was not alone... There was also Vassily Petofi.

And another, whose face he could not see.

Not yet. But she would, and she would defeat him.

* * *

"So you are her friend from her own world?" Derek asked Nicholas.

"Yes. I have known her for quite a while." Nicholas sensed the weak points in Derek's mind. He was no naturally violent, but he could be pushed... and act out of fear.. Another fuse, ready to go...

"Roxanne is a very complex woman, I have found. But then, life has made her so."

"I know. She has seen and endured more than I can imagine. Even now she goes places where I can't follow, no matter how sympathetic I might be... I am not blaming her..."

But he was...and with a bit more prodding...

"I just wish things were different."

"You wish you were more like her? You would have to pay a very high price."

Like the one Howard paid, he implied. Derek could never hope to be what Howard was... And was it surprising that Roxanne preferred Howard to him? Derek had only been second best from the start...

Nicholas watched him, a bland smile on his lips, as if he knew nothing of the doubts stirring in Derek's mind... Derek himself had set himself up for it..

And would very likely die of it.

"Roxanne's killed often in the past." Nicholas said "She was forced into it. She did not enjoy it, but she did it. And it has marked her soul."

"I had to kill someone too." Derek said, morosely "I am not as innocent as that."

"She's lost count of how many she's killed. She wants a normal life. but I wonder if she is capable of it.."

Let Derek ponder it. Let Derek put two and two together...

Let Derek get himself a gun.

* * *

Something is going to happen here and soon." Patterson said, truculently.

'You said it before. But what do you think will happen?"

"Someone will try to kill someone. Even money on Howard and Roxanne. They know how to do it. And if they do, they will probably succeed. But if you push Frances or Derek, they might strike in self defense..."

"Can't you do anything?"

"Sort of locking all four of them in separate cells? No. I could tell them that I know what they are plotting... But they are not plotting. At this moment it is just a feeling they have. Everybody is tense. Something's got to give... All we can do is pick up the pieces afterwards."

* * *

Frances paced... Roxanne was going to kill her. She knew it. She had always known it.

She was not going to kid herself any longer.

What chance did she have against Roxanne, against an experienced killer like that?

None... none unless she struck first.

She had to do it. Quickly. Before Roxanne made her move. She would get one chance and one chance only. She had to make the most of it.

Could she do it? Could she kill another human being?

She'd better. It was her only chance.

* * *

Derek took out his gun. Howard would not surprise him. Nor Roxanne. They would both try to kill him, for different reasons, or maybe for the same one.

He had never used a gun, he realized as he loaded it. Yes, a couple of times he had brandished it, but pull the trigger... the thought made him faintly sick. He pictured a body pierced by bullets, falling to the ground, splattering with blood...

As it had happened to him when Herbert had shot him...

If it had to be, it had to be... He had, after all, killed Sebastian...

He should not have married Roxanne. He should not have thought that Roxanne would help him against Howard. He had been too open in his opposition to Howard...

Too late, too late now. All he could hope was that when he pulled the trigger the bullet would not miss..

He had to do it. Because in cards, a Smith and Wesson beats four aces. And you can get further in the world with a gun and a kind word that with a kind word alone...

Howard was in the way of his continuing to breathe... So Howard must die... And if Roxanne backed Howard, she must die too...

* * *

He would not allow Derek to destroy what he had been building all this time. Not the chance of a lifetime to make things right...

Just because George Brant had some crazy notions did not give him the right to interfere. He knew what he was doing. He could not let them wreck his dreams...

He had thought that he had left the killing behind. Well, he had been wrong. He was a trained killer, and he would use it.

* * *

George checked out his gun. It was going to happen. Soon. While he was still there. Someone would die, and it could be him. Howard had probably identified the main obstacle to his plans and would solve it, the way he always solved things...

As he had solved the Burke Devlin problem...

It was a shame about Howard... but he would not let himself be killed without a struggle.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

"It is starting." Amy said, lifting her head.

"Now?" the ghostly Roxanne asked.

"Yes. You are needed now. Only you can stop the catastrophe now."

Roxanne nodded, and vanished.

* * *

Frances opened the cabinet. The poisons were there, and she could use them.

Her hands moved feverishly as she went over them, choosing the one that would do the job best.

She had to have Roxanne swallow it in some way.

Or she would never be free...

"What are you doing?" Roxanne said behind her.

"I was just looking..."

"For poison, weren't you? You wanted to poison me."

"Roxanne..." It was not a protest, but a plea.

"Who were you going to poison? Me? Howard? I know it is not Derek. No, you and Derek work together. You work for Brant. Did Brant ask you to do this?"

"Roxanne... please."

"I know what you were about to do. And I know that it is all Brant's idea. We know that he will stop at nothing, Howard and I. That's why we will stop at nothing."

"No... he has nothing to do with this."

"You will tell me the truth, Frances."

The door was a few feet away... it seemed miles. She would never get to it. Roxanne would catch her first...

Roxanne came closer. "I have got you, Frances. Make it easy on yourself."

Frances bolted for the door. Useless... useless, she told herself, still clutching the poison bottle. Roxanne would outrun her... She had lost, it was over...

She raced, as fast as she could, with Roxanne in close pursuit. Roxanne, who could kill with her bare hands. Roxanne who wanted her dead, and who would now get her wish.

She was out in the fields, noting how fast the trees passed her by, aware of how little that would help her. She was lost, doomed. She would die here, today, away from home, from everything she had known...

She stumbled and fell. She could get herself up but didn't. It was over. Let Roxanne finish her. Let it be, let it be...

Roxanne reached her. She stood over her, triumphantly, her mouth, a cruel gash of a smile.

Frances looked at her, ready for the blow. Let it be quick, she thought. At least let it be quick.

"Stop!"

Roxanne did. She would not have obeyed any other voice, but this. The voice of her other self.

* * *

Julia looked at the little girl in Jessica's arms. "She is beautiful" she said.

"Yes, she is."

"Do you have a name for her?'

"Antonia, like my mother."

"Good."

It was hard for Julia to concentrate. What Barnabas had told her was going through her mind. She did not want to consider it, and yet she must.

She must get the paperwork to become Urien's guardian, and she must think of a way to give the cats a good home..

And she must be willing to say goodbye...

No, she would find an aswer. She always found one... She was just not looking hard enough...

* * *

"You must not kill her" the ghostly Roxanne said. "You have been given another chance, Roxanne. Don't destroy it."

"She tried to kill me! She will try again."

"She will not. I will take care of that."

Frances looked at Roxanne, at both of them, bewildered. her fate was being decided right there and she could not comprehend it, could not see why it was so, how it mattered to this doppelganger of Roxanne that she did not die.

"It would be so easy" the live Roxanne muttered "just one blow and it would be over."

"Death and destruction lies this way for you and everyone. Do not give in to your anger, do not give in to your instincts. You learned how to kill, and such lessons are difficult to forget. Yet you must, if you are to have any future at all.

"It is not the same..."

"It is the same as it was for me. Just because you do not feel the thirst for blood in one way does not mean that you are free of that in the other sense... We are alike Roxanne. We are identical, and if you do not get hold of yourself, my fate may still be yours."

"It won't happen."

"Fight off your anger, Roxanne. It isn't you. It was put there by an enemy."

"She is the enemy! She tried to kill me."

"No. Both of you have the same enemy. The one who wishes you to kill each other, and you both fell into the trap."

Frances saw this exchange and did not understand it. But she felt as if a great weight was being lifted from her... She had wanted to poison Roxanne? And Howard?... It was impossible, she'd never...

Why did Roxanne hate her so? She had never done anything to harm her... why this madness?

"She has seen." Roxanne said. "Now you must. For your own sake. For your future."

It was a larger struggle, for the taste for the hunt was ingrained in her. It was not just her nature to let her prey escape her. It was against all she knew to allow to live someone who what tried to kill her... yet Roxanne too relented. She shrugged, then let her arms fall limp to her side, and turned her face away.

"All right. I won't kill her."

"It was wise of you. And you shall not regret it."

"What happened to us?" Frances asked, for the first time. "Why did we suddenly try to kill each other?'

"Because Vassily Petofi wants to return and reclaim his kingdom." the ghost Roxanne said.

"Vassily is not really dead, is he?"

"He's dead. But he can return if he's called back. Do you want that to happen?"

"What must we do?"

"Frances must come with me. She must disappear completely. And you will be accused of her murder. You will protest your innocence, but shall not tell them how she came to disappear. For the one who laid this trap must not know that his plan is known. We shall defeat him, in time, but not if we betray ourselves."

"I understand" Roxanne said, "Whatever happens I will hold firm."

"Good" the ghost Roxanne said. "Come with me, Frances."

A door opened in front of her. Frances stepped into in, and the ghost Roxanne followed her.

Roxanne watched them go. There soon would be a tight game to play. She could play it.

Frances followed the ghost Roxanne, finding her way among the corridors. Soon she did not need Roxanne to point the way. She knew where she was going. She had been summoned, and she would go there.

And yet she did not know what she would find at the end of her journey, nor what she would be required to do.

Then she reached the destination.

"Amy Jennings! Is that you?"

"Yes. I am the Sybil of these corridors of the labyrinth. You are now the second player in this game of returning warlocks. You must help me undo the evil which has been brewing on for far too long.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

"Who is the one causing all this trouble? Vassily Petofi?"

"Yes. He is one. And he has called on the help of others in his family. He can summon the help of Andreas, who fought Barnabas in 1897, and the help of Kira, who brought so much suffering to Collisport. But he is not the only one. There is also Nicholas Blair."

'Nicholas Blair? Does it have something to do with Doctor Blair who is visiting with Roxanne?"

"It has everything to do. Nicholas lured Doctor Blair here, and had him show himself in Collinsport and be accepted. When everyone trusted Dr. Blair, Nicholas kidnapped him and took his place."

"You'll have to tell Angelique,,, you must..."

"I can manage it without Angelique's help. And the less people know of this, the better. It is not just Vassily, nor Nicholas Blair. There is an unseen player in this. I thought it might be Judah Zachary, but it does not feel like him. Until we have seen his face we cannot fight him."

"But Angelique"

"Angelique was deceived by Nicholas Blair. She has some vulnerabilities too now. And Megan is too caught up in vampire politics to be fully trustworthy now.."

"So it is up to us."

"Yes. There must be three more players gathered here. When the five are together, we will face this warlock.."

"And what is my task?"

'Now you must help in gathering the players, as Roxanne gathered you."

"Who are they?"

"You ask too much, too soon. When you need to know something you shall be told. Now, the less knowledge you share, the less knowledge you can betray. In this game I hide things from myself lest my thoughts betray me. So I shall hide them from you too."

"I...I understand."

"It is good that you do."

"Whichever you can command me, I will do. And ask you no questions for which there can be no answers."

Amy smiled. "You have passed the first test, Frances. There shall be others, and all of them offered by me. Fail one of those and you might be destroyed."

Frances nodded It was going to be a tight, dangerous game for her to play. But there was no other choice. It had chosen her, and she could only abide by it.

"Let's find the face of the third player. Choose a card. Your hands will be guided in your choice."

Frances took a card.

"It is the Hanged Man... is this the one I must seek? Or is it me?"

"Why do you say that it is you?"

"Because I am here, hanging between two worlds, my destiny in suspension."

"In a sense all players are the Hanged Man. But yes, you more than the others. And you must know yourself beyond any doubt. For only when you do, you will know what you must do. Look at the card, look at yourself. Then you will find the knife that will sever the rope that keeps you in suspension. And you will then find the face of the player that you must seek.

There were many questions in Frances. It infuriated her that Amy would not tell her more, and she doubted that she could find the answers all by herself.

"You must trust me." Amy said, as if she had been reading Frances' mind. Trust me utterly. Even if it makes no sense to you, you must have faith. The answer will come to you, and you will know that it is right.

She gestured and Frances found herself in some strange corridor, with the card in front of her as the only beacon.

"Will she find her way?" Roxanne asked.

"She must. So she will. Now take your card, Roxanne."

Roxanne took it

"The Fool. Am I supposed to find a fool? Or that I am a fool?"

"You know the answer to that. You know the choices you made and where they led. The Fool stepped over a precipice he could not see."

"So I have to start looking for another player?'"

'Yes. And then the four of you will find the fifth."

* * *

Roxanne stood impassible in front of Patterson.

"You finally went ahead and did it, didn't you?" there was weariness and disgust in Patterson's voice "I knew that it was coming, that you would end up killing someone. And that someone turned out to be Frances."

"I did not kill her."

:"You were seen chasing her. She was seen running in great fear. And now she is gone... You know how to get rid of a body, don't you?"

"She isn't dead."

Patterson shrugged. "It will be hard to prove that. She could never outrun you. You caught up with her and did what you wanted all along."

Roxanne wanted to protest, but remember what she had been told. They must never know that Frances was alive...

So she let Patterson cuff her and take her to jail.

* * *

Amy saw this... Roxanne had been arrested. Nicholas must think tow that his plan was working out... That would make him careless...

More important, the unseen warlock behind Nicholas would become careless. And she would be able to see his true face...

Now she had to wait for the two new players to arrive. And then to find the fifth...

* * *

Barnabas looked at the bracelet. It was one of the few remaining pieces of the cache of jewels that had been his cash source for the first years since he was released... That was before he got into investing, and then when he finally had to do like everybody else and get a job...

He had thought of giving it to Tammy. It was her heritage after all, she was his descendant, his child...

He recognized the foolishness of it. He could not give it to Tammy without reminding her how it had been paid for.

Face it. He was a slaver, from a family of slavers. The Collins fortune had been built out of the business of slavery. His becoming a vampire had been the result of the accumulated karma, and the means of delivering retribution.

He could have friendship with Tammy, might like her. But he could not make the past right. It would remain there, accusing him, accusing all the Collinses, With no possibility of restitution, nor of reconciliation. Just the acknowledgment that they had to go on and accept that a terrible injustice had been committed and they had gotten away with it.

And trying to deny it would only lose him Tammy's friendship. He had played that game of giving restitution to Maggie, and all it had done was lock them into a sick relationship. It could not be done. You could not make water run upstream..

Julia had told him what someone else had said, that when you inflict certain kinds of damage, the best you can do for the victims is to disappear from their lives so they don't have to deal with you anymore... It might have been the best to do with Maggie... And it was the best to do with the legacy that Tammy embodied...

Still, he was going to die soon, and he wanted to make disposition of what he had. He wanted to much to give something to Tammy..

Well, some practical voice inside him insisted, why not give a legacy to the NAACP in her name? Leave the jewels to Urien, who probably could find a good buyer for them...

He had to think of legacies for Willie, for Vicky, for Julia...

And he had to see Carolyn as to the disposition of the Old House.. It would be nice to give it away to some organization that could put it to good use. But with no modern conveniences, it was a lot of unnecessary expenses... Maybe Carolyn could fix it. And then sell it or lease it... He had to talk to her about it.

* * *

The corridors stretched endlessly. Frances kept the card in front of her, and the light that emanated from it seemed to show her the way. But only a few inches at the time. She could not guess the path ahead, only discover it as she crossed it.

She felt again the doubt gnaw at her. Was this the best way? Wasn't she just lost, and wandering aimlessly, each step making it worse, making it even more impossible for her to return to Collinsport?

Yet she had to have faith. She had to trust Amy in this. Amy did not wish her to wander here till she died. Amy wanted her to find the next player in the game...

* * *

"Did I tell you I have a daughter?" George told Patterson, bitterly "Her name is Georgina. She was conceived here, when they mated me to Angelique... She is so beautiful, so special... and I may never see her again."

"Why are you so sure?

"Because I can sense that something is coming to a head. I suspect that what Roxanne did is only the first step. Howard will not take this well. He will manage to blame Derek for it. And blame me...and I cannot return yet."

"Couldn't you call on Angelique?"

"I tried, don't you think that I tried? I cannot reach her... Patterson, I am afraid that something wants us to kill each other."

"What for?"

"To regain power... Some other Petofi who wants to reclaim this kingdom. And he, or she, is using our own passions against us. Roxanne wanted Howard and Frances was in the way. Howard and Derek are at loggerheads because Howard has this utopian dream that he wants to carry out. Frances was getting more and more attracted to Derek, and tried to hide it to herself. But I think that Howard sensed it... another reason to resent Derek... even if he himself wanted Derek's wife...And Derek who married Roxanne because he expected her to back him against Howard...Add to it that Roxanne has not forgiven me yet for taking Barnabas from her... There is enough here to have a big tragedy, with everyone dead at the end..."

'Well, we'll put up a good fight." Patterson said, taking out his gun. "We will sell our lives dear."

"Yes. That we can do."


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Nicholas felt vaguely uneasy about Frances's body not being found. Of course, Roxanne might have disposed of it in a deep well, or in a ravine... Roxanne knew how to get rid of bodies.

Or Roxanne might be right in protesting her innocence and Frances might still be alive. That's what Roxanne kept insisting..

In that case it meant that Frances was framing Roxanne for her murder...

Which was just as good as far as he was concerned.

Still, he wished he could talk to Roxanne. He had asked Patterson, who had stopped him curtly. "No visitors" he said, unless it her family. Or her lawyer...

"Why?'" he had protested.

"Because it is my jail and I run it."

He tried to read what lay behind Patterson's intent, but all he could find was stubbornness. And under that stubbornness was desperation. Patterson knew that things were bad, and going to get worse, but did not know when it would come, nor how...

It was coming along nicely...

Still, he had to play his role "I am an old friend. I have come from a great distance to see her."

"That's your bad luck, Doc. She is my prisoner, and when I say no visitors, it is no visitors."

Well, let him have his fun. He would not be lording over anyone soon.

George Brant was sitting nearby and Nicholas smiled at him. Another powder keg ready to go off. Just a little push...

George looked at Nicholas and a shiver ran through him... No, it could not be...

"I am sure that Roxanne did not do it." Nicholas said, in character.

"You would say that. But she is a killer. Once a killer, always a killer. She tried to kill me. Now she killed Frances. And she might well have killed Derek if we had not caught up with her."

"Why would she do that?"

"Because they were in her way. She _does_ want Howard for herself. Frances is an obstacle, Derek is an obstacle. She knows one excellent way of getting rid of obstacles."

"Frances might be alive. She might be hiding."

"No. Frances would not do that. I know her."

"And I know Roxanne."

"So you know how easily she kills."

"She had to!"

"Yes. And now she may thing she has to." George was bitter. He had tried to save Frances and failed. Should have acted sooner, should have gotten her in Collinsport earlier..."

"I am sure that Roxanne is innocent. And I think that Howard agrees with me."

Howard could easily be made to think that this was part of a plot of Derek's and Brant's to undermine his authority... How he could logically reach it was not sure. But it was not logic that he was working on..."

And then, there would be bullets flying...And no one alive to tell the tale afterwards.

* * *

Amy laid down the cards, letting the patterns come and go. Her quest was becoming clearer, but she could not comprehend it still. It was like a bright, swift fish that was no sooner glimpsed than it was gone.

Roxanne would be in it. And Frances, that much she knew. And the pattern passed through Dr. Blair, now a prisoner of Nicholas' He was not one of the figures of the pattern, but somehow belonged to it.

The one who would come next would show the way.

She knew that Roxanne was the one closer to her goal, and her fingers found the card that Roxanne had uncovered.

The Page of Wands.

"Edmund Collins" she said "Son of Quentin and Maggie Collins. I call you on their names. I call you for the sake of a friend of theirs who has lost his way."

* * *

Barnabas sighed as he watched David drive away. Even though he knew that David would be back soon for Eliot, still he was afraid.

David had said that it was time that he grew up and accepted responsibility. It was time that he embraced fatherhood, and stopped being a willful child., He had made too many wrong choices, and had been rescued too many times. Now it was time that he learned to do things right.

That's what David had said to him. Knowing that it was not his fault that Hallie had left him had taken a burden off him. Yes, things were not as he had dreamed they would be... but couldn't that be said of all? Did any of Barnabas' plans back in the seventeen hundreds ever come true? Why did he spend his time bemoaning his fate, knowing that too many people would trade their fate for his?

Yes...Yes. David had said that. But did he mean it? He knew how often his own words were not matched by deeds...

If only he could see David assume full adult responsibility before he died...

* * *

Edmund was studying alone. He had run into a difficult problem and was trying to see the trick of it. Usually, when a problem looked specially though, there was a way to get around if... You had to look for that trick...

But there was a restlessness in the air.. And why?

The big trouble was over. Eliot was safe, and he might soon be going home to his father... So why did he feel as if he was being summoned?

As if he had to see again that blind woman who read the cards...

Maybe it had not ended... maybe Eliot was in danger again...

He wondered if Adam too sensed this. Or Mother Carolyn... They had been in the last time... They should sense it now...

He was not surprised when the door opened in front of him, A gust of wind reached him, and through the door he could see a woman. who signaled at him to come.

He rose. He was being summoned all right. And he had to protect Eliot.

He realized, as he crossed the door, that his body was disappearing, that they would be searching for him, that they would panic, would fear the worst...

Was he doing the right thing?

"Amy is expecting you" Roxanne said.

* * *

The Page of Wands glowed and pulsated with warmth, announcing their arrival.

"It is you again. You need me." Edmund said.

"Yes. It is me." Amy said. "You must help me once more, Edmund."

"Is Eliot in danger again?"

'No, Eliot is not. But it is someone you know. Someone who can use your help."

"Who?"

"Doctor Nicholas Dylan Blair."

"He went to see Roxanne... not this one, the other one..."

'Yes, he did. But he never reached her. You must seek him, you must do what it is needed to rescue him."

"Why me? Why not Megan, or Angelique, or even Barnabas?" They can do more than I can."

"What you can do, no one else can, because you come from the same world as Dr. Blair. Will you help him? For the sake of your parents, who where his friends?"

Edmund gulped. He thought of the risks, of what might happen to him.. He thought that he was still a child...

But would not be a child much longer... His father was Quentin Collins who had died a hero. His mother was Maggie Evans Collins, who had died because she would not keep silent about what she knew was wrong. He was their son. He had to be worthy of them.

"I will." he said.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Edmund was gone, and no one could find him. That was what Urien told him as he got up. He had flown over Collinsport, trying to get a sense of him, and could not find it. He went to Collinwood, to be greeted by a very worried Carolyn.

"He is just gone." Carolyn said. "He left his books there, opened. And he was writing... some schoolwork, and it was left... I do not think that he left through the door."

"What do you think?"

"It feels like... like when Amy summoned us. But this time it was in our dreams. This time it was physical."

"The labyrinth where Amy is connected to the I Ch'ing one.,, that's what she told me."

"Do you want to come to his room and see what you sense?'

He went. and began to feel the residual energy on the walls.

"A portal was opened here.. "

"Does it feel like Amy? That's that it feels to me."

"It had been a while since I took blood from Amy... It is hard for me to sense her... you had more recent contact."

Adam showed up at the door. "No one has seen him outside. I have been asking."

"Yes." Carolyn said. "Because he left by here" she pointed to the wall that Barnabas was feeling with his fingertips, trying to sense who was behind it... Was it Amy? If it was Amy he would not worry so much. But if it was not."

And then it was. It had been a while since he had had mental contact with her. But the memory was there, and it flared."

"He is with Amy" he said.

Carolyn sighed. "I hope she keeps him safe. But why did she call him?"

* * *

Megan was not happy , and that was an understatement.

"You are in big trouble. As I told you, the ronin did not take kindly to what you and Barnabas did. They wanted to have you killed. I managed to bargain with them for your future good behavior... Oh, you have no idea of the trouble you were in. You should have refused to let Amy turn Hallie into a vampire."

"It had to be done. Amy wanted to extend to her the protection of the dark."

"Amy did not stay here to catch the fallout. She left you and Barnabas to bear the brunt of it."

Before Megan could continue her tirade, there was a knock at the door, and Barnabas came in.

"Edmund has disappeared." he said. "and Carolyn and I think that he is with Amy."

"And what do you expect us to do? Go chasing after him?" Megan growled at him.

"Well, I thought Angelique.."

"You thought... No, Barnabas, you do not think, and that is the problem. You turned a woman into a vampire."

"A phoenix into a vampire."

"And then delivered her to be a slave. Do you know what you did? Do you know how the ronin took it?"

"They have no reason..."

"No reason? They are _paranoid_. You know. You were paranoid in 1967, weren't you? Didn't you learn then what the paranoid mindset is. I mean what is the point of being a paranoid murderous maniac if you do not learn from it? Enough. _You_ go to Amy, if you want to live. Go put yourself under her protection. Angelique can't. "

"Why?"

"Because I promised that she would not deal with Amy for a long time... until they calm down, which might mean a couple of centuries. But you should go quickly, before they reach a decision."

'What decision?"

"To execute you. What you did with Hallie, creating a vampire slave is a capital crime. The only reason why the sentence has not been signed yet is because Verhoff hopes to prove that Julia was your accomplice and to execute her to."

'Julia was not involved."

"Good. I might keep her safe. But you, go to Amy if you want to live. And see at what price her protection comes."

* * *

It was no surprise to know that there had been a death sentence. He had been told that he would die soon. First by Dave, and then by Amy... It was coming...

Killed by his own kind for breaking laws that he was not fully aware of...

And yet he could see how he had transgressed, and how they feared what he did...

To say that they felt threatened by his actions was to put it mildly. He knew what it was to feel threatened... As he had been in 1967 when someone came too close to finding what he was...

He knew what he had been capable of then... What they were capable when they looked at him.

He had a reprieve, For a while...

He could put it to good use...

He took out the I Ch'ing. As he knew, the I Ch'ing labyrinth connected to the one where Amy was. He could reach Amy and find out about Edmund..

He threw the wands, Good or bad hexagram? It did not matter as long as it got him to Amy.

Slowly a door formed in front of him. He rose to meet it.

The door opened and a grinning skull greeted him with Petofi's laughter.

"So you are back, Barnabas Collins." Andreas Petofi's voice said. "Do you wish to fight me again? Do you wish to fall into my power again, and pay the same penalty you paid that time?"

"If you are the enemy I must face, then I will fight you."

"I had you once and I remember how you screamed when you understood what I wanted of you. What I took from you by force. You seem to have acquired a taste for it. Maybe I gave it to you."

"You gained nothing of value by it. The secret you sought to force out of me remained unsaid. You made me scream and beg, but you did not make me betray." he stared at the skull "and in the end I won."

"What did you win? some time, no more. The battle had not yet begun."

"The gypsies caught you and executed you. You could be defeated and you were defeated. You could be killed, and you were killed. And if you seek to scare me off what I wish to do, you will fail. I know that this will take my life, so what is left for you to terrify me with? The memory of something that you once did to me and that I survived? I faced it, and can do it again, if needed."

"You did not precisely _face_ me then. It was not your face that I saw."

Petofi laughed obscenely, but Barnabas shrugged. He must be getting closer to his goal if Petofi was trying to warn him off...

Another door opened and Barnabas stepped into in, leaving the grinning skull behind.

"Come with me." a woman said. "I will show you the way."

He stepped in and saw that it was Frances Nelson...


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

"What are you doing here?"

"The same as you. Seeking for answers. But you are the answer that I seek. The one I was sent out to find.. Come with me."

"Where?"

"Follow me, and you will know.:

He followed her "Is Edmund with you, too?' he asked.

"He is. It will all be explained when we reach there."

It was a large corridor that seemed to have no end, but after what seemed an eternity, he found himself facing Amy..

"It is you, indeed.' she said sighing, as she looked at the card in front of her. Death.

"I need you." Amy said.

He looked at the card again. "Will this mean my death?"

"It might."

He sighed. "So I have a choice of how to die. Helping you, or executed by the others for breaking their rules."

"Barnabas..."

"Amy, you and I know that I will die soon. The difference is how and why...And I want to know why you need me."

"I am the Sybil... I do no decree the fates, only show them."

"I know you do. And when you choose, it is the best outcome possible... Amy, it is all right. I lived long past my time. I buried a whole family, and was left only the gravestones to visit. I do not want to visit again the graves of those I love. I am content."

Amy nodded.

"Did you take Edmund too? Is he in danger of death?'

"He might be in danger, but I expect him to live, and to return."

"Carolyn, Roger, and Adam are worried about him. Can't you reassure them?"

"I can do that."

"Good. What is it that needs to be done?'

"You remember the warning about returning warlocks? Well, Nicholas Blair is one of these, and he has kidnapped Dr. Blair and taken his place so as to cause mischief within the egg... Vassily Petofi is also one of those returning, and he is drawing into himself the power of other Petofis."

"And no more than these?"

"No, there is more. I know that there is another one, but I cannot see his face. I am trying to see it, and for that I need you."

"How dangerous are they?

"They have stirred enough trouble. They goaded Roxanne into trying to kill Frances. Frances has been spared, but now Howard, Derek, are George are ready to kill each other with a little encouragement, which Nicholas is only too happy to provide."

"So George is in danger... I will do whatever it takes."

"Good."

"Are we going to rescue Dr. Blair?"

"In due time. He too has a part to play. As you have yours."

"What do I do?"

"Take one card."

Barnabas did. "It is the Moon."

"Yes. Secret healing. And also Deception, named so by those who did not have the patience to see the truth behind appearance. Meditate upon it, until the path before you becomes clear.. It will tell you what to do, as I shall not. For words are carried where they should not be."

Barnabas nodded.

"Take the card with you. Let it be your beacon. Let its light illuminate the way for you. Then you will know the task that you have been given."

Barnabas left by a door which opened where only stone wall existed a few moments ago.

Another door formed, and Frances went through it. Amy was left contemplating her cards.

Roxanne. Barnabas. Frances. Edmund. Four vertices of the pentagram that lay on the table. Barnabas, Knight of Swords. Edmund, King of Wands, Frances, Queen of Cups, Roxanne, Queen of Wands. The Emperor n the line between Barnabas and Roxanne. The Hermit, which represented Dr. Blair, between Edmund and Roxanne. One card, face down between Frances and Barnabas... the missing fifth. Then the Magician, that is Nicholas Blair, between Frances and Barnabas...

Now she had to wait...

* * *

Dr. Blair did not know for how long he had been like this, Maybe a few hours, maybe days, maybe years. There was no way to measure time... There were only glass walls that imprisoned him, and the awareness that his double was leaving mischief in his wake...

He should have never stepped into the changing room.

* * *

"So Barnabas vanished?" Julia asked Urien.

"Yes. He came down here, and when I came to check on him I found these laid down, and him nowhere to be seen. And he left behind his walking stick and his coat."

Barnabas never left the house without them, not matter what the weather... And there was the I Ch'ing hexagram on the table...

Barnabas had stepped bodily into the I Ch'ing labyrinth in his search for Edmund.

"I will look into it." she said, taking up the wands. "This may take a while, so go back to what you were doing."

She did not want Urien watching her, and he saw this. He excused himself and went up.

She threw the wands and stared at the hexagram. Auspicious enough...

She let herself fall into a trance, visualizing doors. She saw one and rose to open it...

And was brutally yanked back.

"What the Hell are you doing? You want to get killed?" Megan shouted at her.

"Megan... I am looking for Barnabas..."

"Barnabas is with Amy. He went to her for protection, and may be willing to pay her price. If you want to live, you do not follow him. You must have no contact with Amy whatsoever."

'Why?"

"Because if you do, Verhoff will have you executed as an accomplice. He wants you dead. I guaranteed your innocence and your good behavior. I said that Amy had had no contact with you, and will have none. What Barnabas did, he did alone."

"But Barnabas..."

"Barnabas is with the one person who can help him. As for you, you have a husband and a daughter. You have a clinic to run. Don't get yourself killed chasing after Barnabas after he got himself in trouble on his own."

"There is also Edmund.. They are desperate."

"Edmund is with Amy. If they are worried, they should contact her. She can reassure them."

"Wouldn't it be dangerous for them?"

"Why? Verhoff has no reason to want them dead, and if he tried to rope them in Cecily and the others would accuse of advancing his agenda, and risking retaliation by Amy and other sorcerers. Your case is different. As Barnabas's confidante and accomplice of long standing, you are suspect of being involved. I will tell Carolyn of that, and that she should leave you alone. No, Julia, after all the things you did with, and for Barnabas, they have trouble believing that you were not complicit in what happened to Hallie. And what happened to Hallie _is_ a capital crime. Barnabas has been condemned. Angelique would have been, except that I reminded them that it might invite retaliation by other sorcerers. And you... you are on my personal recognizance. So stop and think, Julia. Do you want to live? Do you want to raise Gretchen? Do you want to stay with your husband?"

'Yes."

"Then let Barnabas go."

* * *

Edmund was a the end of the corridor, and a door appeared in front of him.

It could not be there by mistake. His card had led him there. There had to be a door, a way to get through.

But the door refused to open.

Maybe there was a catch... Maybe it involved pushing some button on the door... maybe he had to look for a key...

Or just push the door hard enough.

But the door did not budge..

Maybe this was not the right door... He should backtrack and find another...

But when he turned around the corridor had disappeared. Only a blank wall stood there...

* * *

Carolyn was walking the corridors... just like the last time... only without a card...

And Amy was there.

"You worry about Edmund.. You should not. I DO need him for something that only he can do. He shall return when it is done."

"Is it dangerous what he does?"

"I have protected him. As I protected you when I needed you."

"I see. But of course, this may be just a dream, I dream of you because I want to think that Edmund is safe."

"Adam will have dreamed the same dream. And you wake up, you will find that the mail has delivered you a letter from Victoria Winters, who is willing to become your friend again."


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Edmund beat against the wall, but it would not give, any more than the wall.

There had to be a way to get through... This was where he was supposed to go...

"You need help." Someone said to him.

He turned. "Who are you?"

"My name is Roxanne Drew... Or was... In any case, you cannot do it alone. There is a barrier that you alone cannot break."

"But this is where I am supposed to go?"

"Yes. You found the place."

When her ghostly hand rest over his he felt a surge of power through him.

"Nicholas Blair wanted to make sure that no one could reach his captive" Roxanne commented as they cut through the invisible barrier.

The wall, fell, and they saw a man standing against the wall.

"Doctor Blair!" Edmund said.

Doctor Blair heard him and went to her, trying to reach him, but was stopped by an invisible wall.

"We cannot release you yet, Doctor." Roxanne said. "We need your help if we are to defeat our enemy and set you free."

Blair looked at them. "You are Roxanne, and are not... "

"Yes, Doctor. I am Roxanne, but not the one you know... Doctor Blair. We are going to drain away your captor's power and give it to Edmund. You must be the conduit for this, because you are Nicholas's counterpart. There is a connection between the two of you. And the power must go to Edmund, because he is from your world. We will use it to defeat him and set you free."

"Will that work?"

"Yes."

"Then I will help." As if he had any choice...

* * *

Amy wondered if it was wise to give such power to Edmund, him being so young, and if he would be willing to give them up afterwards... To give such powers to a child...

Well, that would be a problem for afterwards... Now what mattered was that they had added Dr. Blair to the spread.

She wondered for how long would Barnabas wander... And what would he find. And how his fate would overtake him. Because she had sent Barnabas to his death...

* * *

"Angelique, I am serious. I want you to give the baby to George."

"It is not 'a baby' Her name is Georgina. And I want to raise her."

"I do not want to be raising her. "

"So don't. I will do the raising for the both of us."

"Angelique, you seem to forget what I am. As long as you stay with me, we cannot be raising children."

"Why? Are you so worried that you might lose control and drain her?"

"It might happen. I don't plan on it. But that does not mean it cannot happen. Children cannot lose the same volume that adults can... And circumstances might force that on me... You know some of the scrapes we have been in. You know what Yolanda did to Barnabas... I am a risk to that child... And I do not want to lose you... actually, I am supposed to stay with you, as the ronin tasked me. Not as a lover if you do not want me, but as a guardian. "

"And so I cannot have my child."

"As long as I, or any other ronin chosen for the task is around, no the child should not be here... Angelique, have you considered what a logistical nightmare it might be for a vampire to raise a child?"

"Nightmare?"

"Think about it, when she gets old enough to understand that "auntie Megan" sleeps in a box in the basement, and wants to share it with other children. You can imagine what "Show and Tell" is going be like in school? She may bring in her friends to look at me... Remember when Elsa stuck those needles in Barnabas? Well, other kids might want to experiment on me... Are you going to forbid her to have friends? Are you going to impose a life of secrecy and lies on her? We cannot ever give her a normal life, you and I."

"Richard raised Julia, and she did all right."

"Julia had already had a life of secrecy and lies imposed on her for survival. Compared to what her life was, what Richard offered was a lot more normal. And Julia did get twisted in her way. No, give her to George."

"George has the same problem I do, you realize, what with Barnabas being around."

"Barnabas will not be back. He has put himself under Amy's protection, and if he ever returns the ronin will kill him. No, he is out of the picture. George can take care of the baby now."

"So, you have already decided."

"You and Barnabas got in trouble. I am trying to salvage what I can. And I think that it is best for you, for me, for that baby, and for George, if you gave her to him and asked for visitation rights."

* * *

Barnabas had walked a great deal. And had more to walk yet...

But he had to find the remaining player and bring him or her to Amy...

And then...

Then was for afterwards.

He heard a mocking laugher. Above him. He looked up and saw the head of Andreas Petofi, mocking him.

"You will fail, Barnabas. you will die."

'You failed. You died. As for me, it is my concern."

He made himself not to listen. Count Petofi wanted to weaken his resolve, and would choose the words for it... Strange that he still had the power to hurt him. But not hurt him enough to forget what he had to do.

* * *

Nicholas watched the drama unfold before him.

Roxanne sat in her cell, glaring at George Brant, who glared back.

"I can understand you trying to kill me, but Frances..."

"I did nothing to Frances."

"So where is she?"

"I don't know."

"You are the last one to see her alive. You killed her.."

"I will get out of here and when I do..."

"You should know better than to threaten a cop."

George Patterson watched this, polishing his gun. They would need it... and probably sooner than they wanted to.

Yes, that was going along nicely, Nicholas thought.

Now about the other players...

Derek had his own gun, and making sure it was clean and ready. Howard would not let the matter rest. Frances was out of the way, and while he had not done it, he would take advantage of the opportunity. He could now have Roxanne. All he had to do was remove Derek.

And what about the children that Howard had been indoctrinating? That Youth Association, where he supposedly taught young children about scouting... and where basically he submitted the to semi-military discipline...

He should have been more vocal about it. Should have alerted Brant about it... It was another weapon that Howard had.

Nicholas smiled... yes. Derek was getting into a murderous frame of mind...

And Howard?

Howard was sure that Roxanne was innocent. She had been framed...

George Brant had done it... George and Derek. They wanted to destroy him, and what better way to weaken him than to kill his wife...

And Derek got rid of Roxanne in the bargain, because she would not back him against Howard...

Nicholas laughed...

Yes, it was all coming along nicely...


End file.
